The team behind the Bloodhound Super-Sonic Car (SSC) announced plans today to take a crack at the 1,228kmph (763mph) land-speed record at the end of 2019.
It has been a tricky few months for the plucky Brit outfit.
Two major suppliers, including URT Carbon Fibre, have gone into receivership and left the car missing some …

COMMENTS

mono-propellant...

Getting out my Pedant's guide to Pedantry, but does a hybrid rocket count as a mono-propellant rocket? One propellant is solid (the fuel?) and the other, liquid propellant (oxidiser) is pumped through it to allow throttling. Only one liquid propellant, but still two propellants?

Re: mono-propellant...

Re: mono-propellant...

Ah, fair enough. I was mis-remembering the Falcon Project rocket that they switched away from. Digging a little deeper, it apparently used solid Hydroxyl-Terminated Polybutadiene (HTPB) as fuel, with HTP decomposed in the manner you describe to provide a hot oxidiser.

Re: mono-propellant...

Nope your right you may wear your pedant badge with pride..

HTP provides one of two parts of the system. This is a hybrid.. using HTP for the oxidizer and synthetic rubber for a fuel in a classic hybrid design. Describing this as a "mono-propellant" is not correct.

To quote for @amis reference.. "When used with a suitable catalyst, HTP can be used as a mono-propellant, or with a separate fuel as a bi-propellant." in this case the team are referencing its using a rubber fuel element.. and hence is not a mono-propellant but a bi-propellant hybrid.

With good reason, the thrust generated in the HTP steam engine will be substantially less that that generated in a hybrid.

Re: Should it happen?

Re: Should it happen?

My personal belief is that it should happen.

The reasoning is similar to why big motor companies invest so heavily in Formula 1. The prizes and prestige of winning a race or season cannot outweigh the millions they spend developing and building cars that are only good for a small handful of races at best. The real prize is when they can apply the advancements they make to their everyday cars, making them lighter, more efficient, and crucially better than their competitors' offers.

In these cases, it isn't the destination that matters so much. It's the journey, and what is learned along the way. The destination is just something to focus on :)

It's partly because Lord Bamford likes fast cars (he had originally thought to enter Le Mans in the diesel class with a race-prepped version of the engine before someone suggested a Speed Record), but also because it proved their entry into the engine market.

Getting 350mph out of an industrial diesel engine designed for diggers was quite the feat.

Re: Should it happen?

Re: Should it happen?

What technology? You're probably just using specific technologies already developed for other sectors - it would need much more money to develop them from scratch - and adapted to a system which will never be reused because nobody really need something like this.

Do you like rockets? Make a SpaceX or Scaled Composites, not something which burns for 30s or less just to put a number on a screen.

"s invest so heavily in Formula 1"

F1 is now only building a brand, and get money from sponsors and TVs. Even forgetting the fact that for years F1 borrowed from aeronautics to "innovate" - it was laughable when they introduced in the '80s direct and water injection that was already used by WWII fighter engines, or composite materials - now that cars are going towards hybrid and electric engines make F1 cars really a dinosaur-like vehicle designed only for the show.

From this perspective, LMP1 cars are far innovative than F1 - especially since endurance races also required for example to develop new lightning systems, and efficiency and reliability requirements are far higher than in F1 with their short races and quick fueling systems.

"Is it costing you any money? Is it hurting you?"

Of course, anybody is free to waste is money as he or she likes. Still, I'm free to question how much sensible and wiser it is. Good engineering today is probably not making rocket propelled cars - I think there are far more interesting challenges than that.

Or you think you have the right to tell me what should I think and if I'm allowed to post it?

Re: Should it happen?

The bloodhound team are running everything open source, so everyone can learn from their engineering advances. In addition they're doing a lot of outreach, using the car to get children excited about engineering. Having visited the Bloodhound SSC site in Avonmouth with m'kids, I can say they're doing an excellent job.

Re: Should it happen?

"Do you like rockets? Make a SpaceX or Scaled Composites..."

Or Nammo. You know, the company actually making the rocket. The ones that have been making rockets for the last 20 years or so, and are using Bloodhound as a testbed for the hybrid rocket they've developed for their orbital launcher.